Iím spoiled. Cane is one of my coaches & Iíve spent enough time in his classes that my brain automatically sees jiu-jitsu through the Posture, pressure, potential lens. Itís something that Iím very grateful for.

Now, as a butt-scooting jiu-jitsu player Iíve been making a real effort lately to improve my wrestling. Hereís my super obvious epiphany: When my opponent wants to shoot my defense shouldnít consist solely of trying to sprawl when he takes his penetration step. When he level changes to set up his shot I should level change too otherwise Iím at a big postural disadvantage. Itís been amazing to me how many shots I can preempt with a good level change.

I'm jealous, but at the same time, grateful. I get great training from my current teacher and I'm able to use Cain's "P" model to make it even better. I've found it easier to add new stuff into my game by analyzing the posture and pressures first before just trying a technique. Used it to help improve my overall survival/defensive skills. Also helped with my De La Riva.

The wrestling tip was one provided to me by a high school wrestler I used to train with. Helped my take-down defense almost immediately. Also, you may like this:

I haven't had the chance to watch the video and work it yet as I haven't being doing much, if any, take-downs (broken finger from last tournament). I tend to be a lot better going for the lower body while the fight is on the ground or on the knees as I find it easier to cut the angles I need to be more efficient. I just need to translate that to my stand-up.

Originally Posted by Sneaky Pete

BJJ aha white belt moment for Sneaky Pete : When I have full mount and someone tries to sweep, post up on all fours and let them roll over and give you their back.

I am an intellectual (not saying I'm smart, just that I use what intellect I have, a lot), analytical, and verbally-oriented person. After a lot of frustrating rolls, I have realised that I simply don't have the mental bandwidth to think about what I'm doing to the depth that I do, and respond quickly and decisive enough to my partner's actions while in a roll. Tonight, on my coach's advice, I just "went for it" - watched my partner and reacted, stayed active, and didn't think too deeply about tactics or technique. I actually found that my mind indexed techniques much better than I thought and I was more able to "just know" what to do than I would have thought.

Between rolls is the time for deep analysis. During the roll, just roll.

Can someone explain this P model to me or link me to an explanation of it? I'm intrigued.

My obvious epiphany came after I went to my first gi class in about 5 or 6 months a couple of days ago, where I realised that I haven't just forgotten everything and I actually did learn some survival skills in my first 7 or 8 months of training beforehand. It was a real confidence booster that I didn't just get smashed completely.

I always seem to realise things I should have done the following day though, which sucks.

I always had an embarrassingly bad cross sidesbottom game & compensated with a good enough guard that I rarely ended upin that position. This obvious epiphany cameshortly before I got my purple belt & was one of the changes in my gamethat (I think) led to my promotion.

When you’re on cross sides bottom the postural goalis to ball up & face your opponent, & to make space to move your hips. You can use your elbows to frame, but mostpeople focus on just one elbow. Wrestlers& half-guard players use their top elbow to dig under their opponent’s armpit & take an under hook so they can get up to quarters. Most other players use their bottom elbow toframe against their opponent’s hip & make space to pull guard.

The epiphany: It’s better not to fixate on one routeover the other. If you fight for bothframes you’ll usually get one of them. Just like in every other position in Jiu-jitsu: setting a trap for eachset of opposite pressures increases your chances of success. I felt really smart when I figured thatout. Then I felt really dumb because ittook me 5 years of jits to get there. Itmade a huge positive difference in my game though.